Issue TOC Print full article Print this page Download as PDF E-Mail this URL Discuss this article Flame the author     In this article Introduction Vulnerability Management Firewalls Get Hotter Control Issues Event Correlation HIP Hosts Technology Areas How We Got Here

Technology Area: Vulnerability-Assessment Scanners

Market Size: The intrusion-detection and vulnerability-assessment software market will reach $1.45 billion in 2006, according to IDC.

What's good: Products identify and report OS vulnerabilities

What's bad: Scalability issues on very large networks; custom application problems not addressed

Challenges: Scalability, timely updates, strong reporting, working with IDS and patch management solutions

Our call: Incredibly important technology space that has been ignored by most vendors

Related Stories:

• "Tipping the Scales" (Network Computing, Sept. 30, 2002)

• "Control the Keys to the Kingdom" (Network Computing, Sept. 2, 2002)

• "It's the Authentication, Stupid" (TechWeb, Sept. 4, 2002)

Technology Area: Firewalls

Market Size: Worldwide VPN and firewall hardware and software revenue hit $668 million in 3Q02, and is forecasted to reach $874 million by 3Q03, according to Infonetics Research

What's good: Mature market, known technology, good as a network ACL device

What's bad: Often incapable of blocking application-level attacks, provides false sense of security

Challenges: Large-scale management, moving up to Layer 7 at higher speeds, moving past the gigabit barrier while maintaining rich feature sets

Our call: While stable, market will continue to evolve in 2003

Related Stories:

• Hackers' Preferred Entry Point Is Tough To Close (InformationWeek, July 8, 2002)

• "New Security Threats--Stronger Defenses" (Network Computing, May 13, 2002)

• "Defense Mechanisms" (Network Computing, Nov. 12, 2001)

• "Building an In-Depth Defense" (Network Computing, July 9, 2001)

Technology Area: Network Intrusion Detection

Market Size: Worldwide IDS product revenue hit $94 million in 2Q02 and is expected to grow 42 percent, to $135 million, in 2Q03, according to Infonetics Research. Gartner, however, says that by year's end 2003, 90 percent of IDS deployments will fail when false positives are not reduced by 90 percent

What's good: Identifying attack patterns and providing administrators with further visibility into their networks

What's bad: High administrative overhead for a primarily reactive product space

Challenges: Providing relevant data, reducing administrative overhead, bypassing the gigabit barrier, reducing false alerts

Our call: Second-generation products could turn the tables in 2003

Related Stories:

• "Does Your Intrusion-Detection System Really Work?" (InternetWeek, Nov. 14, 2002)

• "HIP Check" (Network Computing, Oct. 21, 2002)

• "Connect the Dots" (Network Computing, April 1, 2002)

Technology Area: Desktop and Server Antivirus

Market Size: Corporate demand for antivirus will account for 78 percent of the antivirus market by 2006 and the server-based antivirus market will grow from $508 million in 2001 to $1.5 billion in 2006, according to IDC.

What's good: Provides some protection against known hostile code

What's bad: Typically worthless against new attack methods

Challenge: Becoming less signature-centric and more proactive

Our call: The AV market should take notes from the Okenas and Entercepts of the world

Related Stories:

• "Symantec Introduces Virus Protection For File, Cache Servers" (InformationWeek, Dec. 9, 2002)